Row as Oxford Union votes to hear Irving

The Oxford Union was accused last night of 'promoting anti-Semitism' after students voted to allow Holocaust revisionist David Irving and the leader of the British National Party, Nick Griffin, to address students tomorrow.

Members of the Oxford Union Debating Society voted by a margin of two to one in favour of permitting the two right-wing figures to speak at a free-speech event, despite demands that they be banned.

The decision provoked an immediate backlash. Former Europe minister Denis MacShane condemned the union for 'promoting anti-Semitism', while the university's Muslim and Jewish societies said that principles of freedom of speech were 'overshadowed in this instance'.

The union's president, Luke Tryl, defended the invitation by arguing that the pair were not being granted a platform to expound their views, but would discuss the limits of free speech.

Tomorrow night's event promises to be one of the most bitter in the 184 years of the union. Police are braced for violent clashes between students and far-right groups. Some students have already received death threats from extremists. A report of racial abuse towards an Asian person campaigning against the appearance of Irving and Griffin has been received by the union.

Even before the results of the vote, the prospect of the two men speaking at the union had forced the withdrawal of high-profile figures from other debates, including the Defence Secretary, Des Browne, and television presenter June Sarpong. MacShane, who also recently pulled out of a meeting at the union in protest, said: 'It's very sad. Anti-Semitism is now a growing world ideology and it's regrettable that the Oxford Union will be promoting it.'

Others have dismissed the invitations to Irving and Griffin as a publicity stunt by Tryl, who organised the vote following the furore over the possible inclusion of the rightwingers.

Recent reports had suggested that the decision to invite the two men by Tryl, chairman of the Halifax branch of Conservative Future, formerly known as the Young Conservatives, had left him increasingly isolated and that the vote would be too close to call. In the event, he won comfortably.

More than 1,000 people have signed a petition on the Downing Street website calling on Gordon Brown to condemn the talk.

Tryl - who describes himself as a 'very liberal, modern person' - has claimed that it is possible to abhor the views of Griffin and Irving while accepting their right to be heard. 'They will be speaking in the context of a forum in which there will be other speakers to challenge and attack their views in a head-to-head manner,' said Tryl.

A previous statement by Tryl on the union's website states: 'Stopping them from speaking only allows them to become free-speech martyrs, and ... groups like the BNP do well if they look as if they're being censored.'

Stephen Altmann-Richer, co-president of the Oxford University Jewish Society, said: 'I don't think these people should be invited to the Oxford Union. By having them speak, it legitimises their views.'

Irving has served a prison sentence in Austria for Holocaust denial. Griffin has a 1998 conviction for incitement to racial hatred for material denying the Holocaust.